1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the extraction and tagging of data in a computer environment. More particularly, the invention relates to the extraction and tagging of highlighted objects on a computer display via a configurable control palette.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the short history of computers, text editors have evolved from simple, rudimentary character manipulation programs to word processors, graphical and specialized (e.g. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)) editors. The ability to manipulate text within the early text editors operated on a character by character basis. To make corrections in an existing document, the user had to select the line number that he wanted to edit, then find the beginning and ending character numbers that he wanted to replace or delete. He would then type in the characters that he wanted to insert into that line. This was a very cumbersome process which made document editing very painful and time consuming.
Full screen editors such as the Unix Visual Editor, VI, were later developed that allowed the user to mark the beginning and ending positions of a text block and manipulate that block. The concepts of block moves and cut and paste became popular with this generation of editors.
Many years later, along with the introduction of the mouse, the Apple Macintosh brought the drag and drop concept to the average user. Drag and drop was revolutionary at the time, it allowed the user to highlight text and simply drag it anywhere within his document. It also allowed the user to copy and paste the text to other applications within the computer. This was later applied to images and incorporated into word processors.
A specialized editor such as an HTML editor, allows the user to create specialized code and test the code within the application. Some HTML editors offer the same drag and drop capabilities as a word processor.
The common problem between all of these approaches is that highlighted text must be manipulated within the application itself. The alternative is to cut or copy, then paste the text into the destination application and manipulate it within the application. Manipulation consists of changing the text attributes such as font type, font style, font size, color or the placement of tags. The user typically inserts tags around the text by manually typing them or laboriously selecting them from certain menus under specific applications.
The drawback to performing the changes to the text in the destination application is that, once the desired changes to the text are performed, if the user wants the object placed in several different destination files, the user must repeatedly copy and paste the object into each destination file.
It would be advantageous to provide an extraction and tagging device that allows the user to manipulate and write highlighted objects to a plurality of destination files while preserving the integrity of the source file. It would further be advantageous to provide an extraction and tagging device that is easily operated and configured by users.
The invention provides an object extraction and tagging system. The invention utilizes an easily configurable control palette that allows the user to modify the attributes of an object without affecting the original object and thereby retaining the integrity of the source file. It further provides the user with a centralized, simplified system within which all of the desired operations upon an object are performed.
The control palette is easily configured by the user for any specific task the user desires. A control palette library is provided for the user to save custom palette layouts to and retrieve custom palette layouts from. Custom palette layouts allow the user to setup standard palettes for specific tasks such as document version control, training documents, interactive tutorials, market research surveys, and on-line testing.
The user performs simplified extraction and tagging of highlighted objects from various sources through the control palette. The user specifies changes to each object""s attributes such as font type, font style, font pitch, and color, through simple button clicks on the control palette. User defined tags or HTML tags may also be selected by the user to be associated with an object. Additionally, the user may also specify links back to the source document for future reference.
All of these operations are performed through the control palette and never affect the original object in the source file. Once the desired operations are performed on the object, the user selects a plurality of destination files where the modified object is written. The invention thus provides a system that is beyond the drag and drop concept, allowing the user to perform multiple operations upon an object through one control palette rather than through several different applications and utilities.